The Mayoralty.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20225, 1 May 1931, Page 10

The Mayoralty.

We shall not reply to the vulgarities of which Mr Sullivan was guilty last night by asking him where he acquired his manners. It will be his own fault, however, if the public ask what kind of Mayor a man would make who has such a pleasant mind. What was said in the article of which he complains was that he ought not to be Mayor in any circumstances. All that need be added now is that a man should not occupy any public position if his reaction to criticism is bad temper and insolence. Further, when a candidate for a public office says " Elect me and "your wages will not fall" he is appealing to mass cupidity and mass ignorance. When he says it in the middle of a national depression critics who are gentle with him share his offence. It is opportunism of the most impudent kind to .say that " the main "point at issue" in the Mayoral election is "the question of wages." It is quite disgraceful to suggest that if Labour wins the election wages may not fall, and that if Labour is beaten the result will be a disaster felt all over the Dominion. As for the remark that " the great economists of "the world" oppose wage reduction, it is not true of ten of them, it is not true of five, it is only vaguely true of two or three. And it is not true of any of them to the extent, and in the manner, implied by Mr Sullivan. Economists know that purchasing power is the same whether the public servant has more or less to or the taxpayer less or more. Mr Sullivan may, or may not, know this. He knows that it is not the Mayor's first duty or second on third to keep the wages of the Council's employees at a fixed level. His duty is to all citizens equally, and to obscure that duty as well as to shirk it is only a little less shameful than to exploit calamity for political ends.